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CBC
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
How an Indigenous documentary captured the hearts of film festival attendees
Social Sharing Endless Cookie arrives in theatres this week, after charming audiences at film festivals all over North America. Canadians Seth and Peter Scriver created the animated documentary about their relationship as half-brothers, as Seth is white and Peter is Indigenous. Today on Commotion, Elamin Abdelmahmoud chats with Swampy Cree filmmaker Sonya Ballantyne and Cree author David A. Robertson about the power of the animation and non-linear storytelling in Endless Cookie, and how the film affected them. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: [This documentary] does not have a linear narrative whatsoever. David, can you tell me a little bit about how it tells the story? David: There's definitely a lot of Indigenous elements to the storytelling here in this documentary. It's definitely an absurdist film — the experience of the characters, you see them in this non-sequitur way in various situations. If you look at the heart of Indigenous storytelling — what I've seen, especially with elders and knowledge keepers telling stories — is that it engages, first of all, multiple senses and emotions: you come in and out of the main points and themes, you leave something, go off on a tangent, but you always kind of come back to it, you always return to it to make this really profound point. And that's what this documentary does over and over again. It has these moments that you kind of leave — maybe you're interrupted by somebody flushing a toilet in the house somewhere — and then you come back midway through and you're back on this guy getting his hand stuck in a trap, and then you leave again. And it all leads into this really profound final point this documentary makes about storytelling, about knowledge keepers and about the relationship between the past and the present. So it is absurdist. It is non-linear. But it also is, I think, really a great example of the beauty of Indigenous storytelling. Elamin: This is also a documentary that doesn't shy away from hard things to talk about. Pete talks about his daughter who died by suicide. There are frequent references to residential schools. What did you think of the way that the documentary wove those stories into the movie, Sonya? Sonya: I love to look at the Indigenous experiences as a pizza, and racism is like the pepperoni on that pizza. It's not the full experience of being Indigenous, but it's a large part of it. And I really love the way they presented [hard things], especially Pete's daughter's suicide. Despite the content, it is not presented in a sad way just because they're honouring her by remembering her, saying that she's riding her motorbike in heaven and stuff like that. It was just so touching for me to see because, in any other culture, suicide is talked about with such darkness and reverence, but here it's like, they just bring it up momentarily by saying, "Oh, yeah, this things I made for Jess when she took her life." And I was like, "What?" I just remember how that hits you. And then you see this beautiful little animation piece they make to honour her. And I'm like, "Oh, that was just so beautiful to see." And I love the way they still talk about her, like she's still around. I remember being so hesitant to watch the movie just because I was so turned off by the animation style. Like I was saying before we got on air, I demand beauty in my content. My father-in-law was repeatedly trying to get me to watch it, and I'm like, "I don't know if I want to watch it." But I was so glad when I was finally able to see it and just feel this connection. Despite the animation, I've never felt this seen in something as I felt in this one. And it just shows so much of my childhood and my background that I was like, "I really hope everybody gets to see this because it captures something of the heart of being Indigenous." And I hope a lot of people see it — or more people see it now that it's in theatres.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Animated film Endless Cookie tackles racism, residential schools and Canadian smugness with brotherly love
When Toronto animator Seth Scriver toured his 2013 film Asphalt Watches in the United States, he was repeatedly complimented on how well Canadians treated the environment and Indigenous people. Scriver wasn't having it. 'I would tell them, 'Oh, man, sorry to tell you, but maybe that's not fully true.'' Scriver, 47, is white. His half-brother, Peter Scriver, 62, is Indigenous and lives in Shamattawa First Nation, a Cree community in remote northern Manitoba. In setting non-Canadians straight about the intricate realities of Indigenous life in the country, Seth often found himself retelling stories he'd heard from 'Pete.' Those conversations and those stories are the spine to Endless Cookie, a cartooned, absurdist film that not only documents the chaotic life of his Indigenous brother, but touches on issues such as residential schools, land claims, institutional racism and the smug attitude of Canadians who feel superior to their American counterparts. 'It was neat to sneak attack people with truths and lessons within fun animation,' Seth says, speaking on a Zoom call along with his brother. Endless Cookie opens in Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg on Friday. It premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to warm reviews − 'colorful anecdotes about Indigenous Canadian life amuse in wacky animated doc,' said Variety − and took the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. More recently, the film opened Toronto's imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. Despite the earthy, comical vignettes and idiosyncratic animation − Peter's nose resembles a toilet plunger − the homespun Endless Cookie is ultimately a soulful story about a far-out, far-north family (including nine children and almost twice as many dogs) and the brothers' endearing camaraderie. 'If you can get the audience to connect to the characters in an unexpected way, which I think this film does very well, it's also an unexpected way to find some real humanity,' said Daniel Bekerman, one of Endless Cookie's producers. Bekerman founded Toronto's Scythia Films and was one of the producers behind 2024's The Apprentice, about the pre-presidential Donald Trump. He was introduced to Seth's work through Asphalt Watches, which he found to be subversive, psychedelic and punk rock − 'All the things I enjoy.' Bekerman was on board with Endless Cookie almost from the beginning, which stretches back nine years or so. He worked with Seth on story ideas (and the application to Telefilm for funding). 'Seth has an incredible ability to turn every sentence into a funny or weird sequence,' Bekerman said. Because the process of completing the film is woven into the meta storyline, Endless Cookie also portrays the struggle of indie filmmakers. Most of the issues, no surprise, involved time and money. Seth, a carpenter on the side, was the film's solo animator. Peter is a maintenance person at a nursing station and a ranger. Seth's trips from Toronto to Shamattawa to tape conversations with his brother were expensive. When he did make the trip, the ambient interruptions of puppies yelping, children slurping and video games beeping sabotaged the audio. 'It was a real pain that it was taking so long,' Seth says. 'I was worried it would be out of date by the time it was done.' He needn't have worried. The offbeat animation of shows such as Adventure Time and Rick and Morty is still in vogue, and audiences are increasingly receptive to Indigenous stories. Like the hit Canadian television series North of North and the pop album Inuktitut by Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie, Endless Cookie does not depict Indigenous life as an exotic sub-genre of the mainstream. 'Through Seth's portrait of a family and through Peter's stories, the film encapsulates what it means to be Canadian, in a strange, roundabout way,' Bekerman said. Still, the film addresses the spirituality of Indigenous people and embraces the oral tradition of lore handed down from one generation to the next. 'Before we had anything modern, we kept kids occupied sitting around and telling them stories,' Peter says. 'Besides, it's better than carrying water or chopping wood.'
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Animated documentary bite-sized chunk of family life
At the close of the Hot Docs Festival in May, in a field of dozens of live-action films, it was the animated feature Endless Cookie that took home the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, a prize determined by audience poll. Endless Cookie • Directed by Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver • Dave Barber Cinematheque • 97 minutes • Opens Friday, runs to June 22 It was no small achievement for co-directing brothers Seth Scriver, 47, a seasoned artist and animator, and Peter Scriver, 62, a man of many talents, including carver, trapper and poet. Peter, who is of white/Cree lineage, lives in Shamattawa First Nation in Northern Manitoba, 744 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Seth, who is white, is based in the city of his birth, Toronto. The urban/wilderness dynamic between them yields material that is powerful and relevant. But still … a documentary? The film is, after all, a cartoon, and one that is flagrantly impressionistic when it comes to hard-nosed reality. Peter's daughter Cookie, for example, is drawn as an actual chocolate-chip cookie; his dog Nutty is portrayed as Mr. Peanut. The overall look of the film suggests an underground comic come to life. Seth Scriver admits, when the film — which debuted at Sundance 2025 and opened imagineNATIVE 2025 — was presented at Hot Docs, the brothers were surprised it was so fervently embraced by the documentary realm. 'It was funny. We weren't trying to make a (documentary) genre film. It was more like … What is this?' he says. But he and his brother grew to accept the classification. 'It's a documentary because it's real stories. It's like a real family portrait, even though it seems unbelievable. Most of it is based in some reality,' Seth says. Most of the action is set in Shamattawa, where Seth interviews Peter about his life, including their lives together, stemming from a shared coming-of-age in Toronto, where their white father ran a vintage clothing shop in Kensington Market. In contrast to the crazy streets of '80s-era urban Toronto, the scenes in Shamattawa are linked into a familial community, especially Peter's sizable brood of nine children. And therein lies the film's distinction. Supplied It took Seth Scriver nine years to animate the movie. Supplied It took Seth Scriver nine years to animate the movie. When Seth originally discussed the movie with his brother, the idea was to make a film that would just take a couple of years to finish. It ended up being nine years in the making. Part of the reason is that Seth animated the film almost entirely by himself. But also, the project transformed when Seth realized he couldn't make a conventional animation with typically pristine audio. 'Originally, when we started, it was going to be straight-up good recording with no interruption, but Pete lives in a four-bedroom house with nine kids and 16 dogs, so it's insane to try to record anything,' says Seth. Supplied Peter Scriver is a trapper, carver and poet. Supplied Peter Scriver is a trapper, carver and poet. 'So eventually, we gave into the insanity and let it go.' Endless Cookie presents a picture of Indigenous life that veers away from the sombre, serious depictions prevalent in most films that take on the subject. The kids are funny and, cartoon distortion notwithstanding, real. They even contribute their own creativity to the mix with both animation and music. 'It's not for everyone, but we've been really lucky that it's been embraced so much, and people can relate to it,' Seth says. 'Because everyone has crazy families.' Randall KingReporter In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
